However, we can see in Act 1 Scene 3 that Shylock also has deep-set religious hatred:
‘I hate him for he is a Christian’
Although Antonio and the other Christians hate Shylock because of his faith, Shylock has brought himself down to their low level, by admitting that the same prejudice affects his view of Antonio. Shylock also explains that his hatred for Antonio comes from the fact that he lends out money without interest, which reflect badly on Shylock. Shylock’s desire for revenge comes to the fore. Here he is showing his villainous character. But we can see that perhaps pressure from Shylock’s business could be causing him to think like this.
Later on in the same scene, of Act 1 Scene 3 Shylock explains to the audience ways in which he has been attacked and victimised because of his faith:
‘You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is own’.
Shylock has been the subject of religious persecution. He knows that Antonio is using his influence in society to torment Shylock. Antonio is insulting Shylock purely because of religious and racial hatred. Antonio feels that Shylock shouldn’t charge interest for money lending and it is as if Antonio is punishing him for this. These are the only two reasons we are given in the play and therefore we can conclude that these insults towards Shylock are unjust and spiteful.
The dehumanisation of Shylock plays a key part in how he is victimized. Throughout this scene and throughout the rest of the play, the other characters know Shylock as ‘the Jew’ – he is stripped of his name. Shylock is referred to by name only four times in the whole of the play. Twice by the Duke, once by Portia in the trial scene and once by Antonio. He is usually addressed as ‘the Jew’ often coloured by derogatory negative adjectives for example ‘dog Jew’. Antonio has also called Shylock ‘dog’ and yet Antonio with Bassanio, come to Shylock asking for his money:
‘You spurned me such a day, another time
You called me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys?’
(Act 1 Scene 3)
Calling Shylock a ‘dog’ strips him of his humanity likening him to an animal. Thus his status is reduced and it is easier to demonise him and his actions.
However, when Shylock attacks Antonio we would expect Antonio to rebut and reject the allegations, but instead he does the opposite:
‘I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too’.
(Act 1 Scene 3)
Antonio admits Shylock’s allegations and confesses that he will probably repeat his evil. Antonio is therefore confessing to having persecuted Shylock.
Shylock, having been shown to be a victim, is then shown to be a true villain when he says:
‘let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your flesh to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.’
This is obviously an evil bond, and Shylock is doing it solely to seek revenge. Shylock longs to see Antonio harmed, perhaps similar to the ways in which he has been hurt. He wants Antonio to feel the same grief and pain he has suffered. Nonetheless Antonio goes along with the bond and announces that he has sent out all his money in ships to different countries and is expecting them all to return in two months time, it is not likely that they will all sink.
In Act One Scene Three, Shylock begins by speaking in prose to Bassanio. However, this changes to verse when Antonio enters, showing a shift in tone and emotion. This could also be because Shylock is the one being asked the favour and so he has a higher status, he is also speaking to someone of a higher status and importance than him. Prose is non-rhyming text without a formal or rigidly imposed structure and is often used in the comical scenes or by low-status characters in ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Verse occasionally rhymes and follows specific line structure and format. Characters of high status often use it. Shylock had a low-status as a Jewish character but does speak in verse on occasion during the play. The change at the beginning of Act One, Scene Three, allows Shakespeare to create more of a dramatic impact, it causes tension within the audience and helps to intensify the impact of Antonio’s entrance.
In Act 4 Scene 1, the trial scene, Shylock is still being discriminated against because of his faith. The Duke orders someone to go and ‘call the Jew into court’. We already know that the Duke is going to be biased against Shylock. The Duke has stripped Shylock of his name. The Duke calls Antonio by his name but calls Shylock ‘Jew’. This shows that throughout the scene the Duke is going to be biased towards Antonio and his decision to do this will also influence the rest of the court. From this moment on Shylock is not having a fair trial; he is being judged in a Christian court and not a court of law.
The Duke then asks Shylock to be merciful, suggesting that Antonio has had such bad luck lately that even the most hard-hearted person would have sympathy for him:
‘Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty.’
(Act 4 Scene 1)
Although several people ask Shylock to release Antonio from the bond, he refuses to show any mercy. Shylock says he will have what is rightfully his because it is his ’whim’. Even when Shylock is offered six thousand ducats, which is double the original amount, he refuses to accept the money but instead he insists that he will have his bond:
If every ducat in six thousand ducats
Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
I would not draw them, I would have my bond.’
(Act 4 Scene 1)
Shylock uses antithesis to show that he wants his bond. He is saying that he will not take the money but he will have his bond. Shylock is not a victim here, but the villain.
When Shylock is asked to give a reason as to why he wishes to harm Antonio, he refuses and cannot give any reason:
‘So can I give no reason, nor will I not
More than a lodged hate and certain loathing
I bear Antonio’
(Act 4 Scene 1)
Shylock wants to harm Antonio, simply because he hates him. This may sound unreasonable, however we know from earlier on in the play that Shylock has been subject to the same hatred, which has been given out by Antonio. Shylock has received religious hatred and now is claiming his revenge. The pound of flesh forfeit at the trial scene reveals the blood lust of Shylock. He brings into the court of law, weighing scales and he starts sharpening his knife. These props assist in building the tension creating a dramatic impact on both Elizabethan and modern audiences. Shylocks language whilst he is sharpening his knife also helps to increasingly build the suspense:
‘Ay his breast
So says the bond, doth int not noble judge?
‘Nearest his heart’, those are the very words.’
(Act 4 Scene 1)
The language portrays Shylock as being a bloodthirsty character and therefore a villain to the contemporary audience. It is at this stage that he looses the sympathy of the audience that he had gained at the beginning of the scene, when Shylock is victimised by the Duke by being called ‘The Jew’.
In mercy, Antonio sets the terms of Shylock’s release. He is required to give half his assets to Antonio to use and hold in trust for Lorenzo and Jessica, therefore when Shylock dies all must go to them. Antonio adds that Shylock must become a Christian. Not surprisingly this prospect leaves Shylock feeling unwell and he quietly leaves the stage for the last time in the play:
‘I pray you give me leave to go from hence
I am not well. Send the deed after me
And I will sign it.’
(Act 4 Scene 1)
Usually he would stand up for himself and fight back but there is nothing he can do other than leave. Shylock is a beaten man. The religious conversion of Shylock is not justified. By giving his possessions away he has got what he deserves. However Shakespeare possibly added the conversion into the play to please the Elizabethan audience. The Elizabethan audience would feel content that the Jew had been converted to Christianity and would feel that justice had been done.
The end of the trial scene leaves Shylock as a complete outcast from society. He has been forced to turn to Christianity and has been humiliated in court. He is left completely alienated from both Jews and Christians. He is left with what brought him down and lost him his money – Christianity. This would leave a modern audience sympathising with Shylock and therefore leaving the final image of Shylock as a victim.
There is also evidence throughout the entire play, which suggests Shylock as being both a villain and victim. Shylock gains sympathy as he reveals his humanity. He does this by showing love and affection for him family. This shows a modern audience that he is human. The Christian characters in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ should treat him as a human, instead of dehumanising him the majority of the time and he asks them to do so in Act 3 Scene 1:
‘Hath not a
Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?’
This great speech magnificently evokes the sufferings endured by the Jews throughout history. By placing such fine speeches in the mouth of Shylock, Shakespeare has transferred the status of a stage-villain into a rich and complex character. Shylock is pleading to the Christian characters to treat him as they would anybody else. This also brings out one of the main themes of the play – religion and race. In this speech, Shylock speaks in blank verse. Shakespeare used this as it would have created emotional intensity, even more so on a modern day audience of the 21st century. In his speech Shylock outlines the fact that everyone is the same, everyone has affections and feels love, everyone feels pain and hurt and so if everyone is equal then why shouldn’t everyone be treated equally.
I do not believe that it is possible to say categorically that Shylock is the villain. There are a number of scenes where he is portrayed as a villain. The most obvious example is in the courtroom scene where he insists on the performance of the bond to the letter. His justification is purely given in terms of his hatred for Antonio. He says:
‘So can I give no reason, nor will I not
More than a lodged hating and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio.’
Shylock is not in a sense initiating the hatred. It is the reaction of a man from a race that has been vilified and persecuted over many centuries.
There are therefore a number of examples in the text, where Shylock is portrayed as a victim. He is the subject of obscene name-calling. He is particularly hated as a moneylender. Ultimately he is forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity.
There are no winners or losers, victims or villains when it comes to religious or racial hatred. Everyone is a victim, locked into a vicious cycle of intolerance that produces acts of inhumanity to members of a different race or religion. Shylock is both the victim of such acts of inhumanity, but also the villain who, admittedly out of revenge, perpetrates similar acts of inhumanity. On the one hand he wants mercy, on the other hand, he is not willing to dispense it.
